Recreation and Power vs. the Environment :: Free Essays Online

Recreation and Power vs. the Environment The emptying of Lake Powell has straight been an tax return for years. The sierra club dependablely supports the draining of the lake for environmental issues. One expression of the debate argues for recreation, water and business leader supplied from the lake. The other argues for the saving of an environment that is now being destroyed by the existence of the lake. Both sides carry strong support, and the debate sees no clear end coming any condemnation soon. Lake Powell was created in the 1950s with the building of the Glen Canyon Dam, as part of the atomic number 27 River Restoration Project. This dam was built to support a power constitute to power parts of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah, and to ensure the plastered water supply of the Colorado. It filled Glen Canyon with water. The lake now crosses into both states and is a recreation area for sightseers, cliff divers, swimmers, fisherman, and bo aters. The making of the lake brought about the building of the metropolis of Page, which raises 500 million dollars per year of tourism revenue. This man-made lake now delivers power and water to over 22 million people. But does this power progress at a cost? Lake Powell has come as such a cost that does not prove worthwhile. Its draining will help to relate the ecosystem, and the state of the southwest. The water in Lake Powell is now dropping at an immense rate. The rivers that feed the lake cannot sustain the levels they once had. The lake has dropped over 100 feet. Creating this lake made a water mass that was very susceptible to evaporation it evaporates at a rate of a million and a half acre feet per year. This would be stop with the draining of the lake, and letting the river be restored to its original state. With the making of the damn, very primary(prenominal) fish and plant habitat was destroyed, some of these being important and imperil species . It also prevented the flow of fish to different part of the river, as on that point are now 11 dams along the rivers.